VMware vSphere 5.1 update 1 is probably one of the most recently anticipated updates of the VMware stack and it has finally hit the streets. For those of you following the release of vSphere 5.1, you have seen the GA release last fall, followed by 5.1.0a then a couple of months later 5.1.0b, all addressing bugs and ironing out critical installation issues.
VMware vSphere 5.1 Update 1 has a laundry list of improvements, support for new Microsoft products, and a lot of bug fixes. If you are still on vSphere 5.0 or tried 5.1 in the past and ran into problems, you definitely need to check out vSphere 5.1 Update 1. If you want a complete vSphere 5.1 installation guide, check out my 15-part blog series here. I will be updating it in the near future for Update 1. If you are running vSphere 5.1, there are a number of security vulnerabilities addressed in the update so start planning your upgrade.
Known Issues with vSphere 5.1 Update 1
Today VMware posted a new KB warning about a vSphere 5.1 Update 1 bug, which may affect customers. The problem prevents you from logging into the vSphere Web Client using an AD account, if you AD account is a member of approximately 19 or more domain groups and the SSO service is configured with multiple domains. The KB states until a hotfix is released, DO NOT upgrade to vSphere 5.1 Update 1. In many enterprise environments a vSphere administrator may be in dozens of groups, depending on how access is controlled within the domain. Fewer customers will probably have SSO configured for multiple domains, so the impact of this issue is probably limited to larger enterprises. Additional issues include:
If you are using the vSphere Storage Appliance, you MUST upgrade to vSA 5.1.3 after you upgrade the rest of your infrastructure to vSphere 5.1 Update 1. vSA 5.1.1 is NOT compatible with vSphere 5.1 Update 1.
You can NOT use the simple installer to upgrade from prior 5.1 versions to 5.1 Update 1. You must utilize the individual installers.
Windows Server 2012 failover clusters are NOT supported on ESXi 5.1 Update 1. The cluster validation wizard gets stuck in an endless loop and you are unable for form the cluster.
VMware vSphere Management Assistant (5.1.0.1 –Â April 4, 2013)
HP Custom Image for ESXi 5.1.0 Update 1 Install CD
You can find all of these downloads in the usual place, My VMware. You can download the updated documentation archive ZIP bundle here. The full documentation page is here.
vCenter Server 5.1 Update Release Notes
vCenter 5.1 Update 1 is more than just bug and security fixes, it incorporates a number of newly supported operating systems and database back-ends. You can find the full release notes here. Below is just a tiny faction of the new features and bugfixes.
What’s New?
vCenter Server can be installed on Windows Server 2012
vCenter can use Microsoft SQL Server 2012 and SQL Server 2008 R2 SP2
Guest operating customization support for Windows 8, Windows Server 2012, Ubuntu 12.04 and RHEL 5.9
Removed vRAM usage limit of 192GB on vSphere Essentials and Essentials Plus
Resolved Issues
A lot of bug fixes are included, but a few highlights include:
Better error reporting when accidentally updating the Admin or STS service with incorrect protocol parameters. It will now tell you what you botched up.
Number of security patches including Java, tcServer, vCSA remote code vulnerability
Upgrade issues from 5.1.0a to 5.1.0b
VMware ESXi 5.1 Update 1 Release Notes
Mirrors the new guest OS support in vCenter 5.1 Update 1. Full 200+ page OS compatibility matrix is here.
Resolved: Long running vMotion operations might result in unicast flooding
Windows Server 2012 failover clustering is not supported
You can find the ESXi 5.1 Update 1 full release notes here.
vCloud Director 5.1.2 Release Notes
Like vCenter 5.1 Update 1, vCloud Director has some new features and many resolved issues. Full release notes is here. The full vCloud Director 5.1.2 documentation set is here.
What’s new?
Ability to delegate creating, reverting, and removing snapshots
You can install vCloud Director on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.3
You can install vClould Director using Microsoft SQL Server 2012 databases
Supports customization of Windows Server 2012 guest operating systems
Resolved Issues
Security vulnerabilities addressed by updating Java to 1.6.0_37
Multiple bug fixes, see full release notes
vCenter Converter Standalone 5.1 Release Notes
The new version of Converter has added a number of great new features and broader operating system support. You can find the full release notes here.
Supports VM hardware version 9
Guest operating system support for Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012
Guest operating system support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
Support for machine sources that use GPT partition tables
Support for systems that use UEFI
Support for EXT4 file system
vCenter Server Heartbeat 6.5 Update 1 Release Notes
No major changes here, but incremental support for the latest VMware products. Full release notes are here.
Support for vCenter 5.1 Update 1
Support for View Composer 5.2
vSphere Data Protection 5.1.20 Release Notes
More than just bug fixes, VMware added many new features to this build. Full release notes are here. A subset of the new features:
Integration with vCenter alarms and alerts notification system
Ability to clone backup jobs
New filters to restore tab
Expands capacity up to 8TB per appliance
Supports the ability to expand existing datastores
Supports guest-level backups of Microsoft SQL Servers
Supports guest-level backups of Microsoft Exchange Servers
vSphere Storage Appliance 5.1.2 Release Notes
Like vSphere Data Protection, the vSphere Storage Appliance has many new features. The full release notes are here.
Support multiple VSA clusters managed by a single vCenter Instance (about time)
Ability to run vCenter Server on a subnet different from the VSA cluster
Support for running the VSA on one of the ESXi hosts in the VSA cluster
Ability to install the VSA on an existing ESXi host that has running VMs
Ability to increase the storage capacity of a VSA cluster
Up to 24TB of storage per node
Multiple RAID types (RAID 5, RAID 6, RAID 10)
Summary
vSphere 5.1 Update 1 will be a welcomed upgrade to customers already running vSphere 5.1. After a rocky start of vSphere 5.1 GA, VMware has clearly been working on stability, bug fixes, and supporting the latest Microsoft operating systems and SQL databases. The vCloud Suite is ever expanding, so when you go to download all the components you will see over two dozen downloads you can choose from. If you’ve been hesitant to move up to vSphere 5.1, give 5.1 Update 1 a whirl in your lab and see if it’s stable enough for you.
About the issue with the users with over 19 AD groups, do you know if that only concerns upgraded instances or a fresh install install of 5.1 U1 should not have this issue?
Nope! SSO in Update 1 is just bug fixes, except for the added support of SQL instances with dynamic ports. It still requires the SQL users for RSA_DBA and RSA_User.
Mark
May 2, 2013 2:21 am
Looking forward to your updated 15-part article covering 5.1 U1. I followed your original series and was very pleased when it was all finished. It will be good to have the latest version!
Hi Derek,
About the issue with the users with over 19 AD groups, do you know if that only concerns upgraded instances or a fresh install install of 5.1 U1 should not have this issue?
Thanks.
From my reading of the KB it’s a blanket problem..regardless of how you get to 5.1 Update 1.
Great synopsis!! Thank you.
Could you please confirm if VMware fixed SQL authentication requirements to allow only windows authentication?
Thanks
Nope! SSO in Update 1 is just bug fixes, except for the added support of SQL instances with dynamic ports. It still requires the SQL users for RSA_DBA and RSA_User.
Looking forward to your updated 15-part article covering 5.1 U1. I followed your original series and was very pleased when it was all finished. It will be good to have the latest version!
View 5.2 IS compatible with vSphere 5.1u1